Layed off at 64, gee was age an issue???? I rather think so.
was it the fact my salary had risen to the point it had… of course it was.
Why else would an employee of 12 years with top performance ratings every year be one of those selected to be “layed off”.

So that leaves me being too old to compete in the bare minimum of jobs that are out there. Now what? With your purpose gone and your ability to support yourself, you feel the feelings you descibed hanging over you like a suffocating blanket each and every day.

Volunteering gets you out of the house, but it doesn’t pay the bills.
These are the “golden years”?

FYI - I found your blog via a link at NY Times health blog “Well” at http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/

Your blog entry spoke vividly to me as I am also faced with a similar situation. I also know that the greatest blessings enter our lives in disguise. I felt compelled to share this link with you: http://www.kabtoday.com/epaper_eng/content/view/epaper/8403/(page)/7/(article)/8422
I hope it peaks your attention. A goal in life does not always have to come in the form of a career.

Take care,

-Veronica

Hmmm..if you’re anything like your photo, you’re probably of retirement age and just haven’t come to grips with the need to let the kids do the leg work while you do the head work. Sure, you miss colleagues, sources, meetings (my husband was a journalist, then a college professor, so I know) and the camaraderie that goes with it.

Give yourself a year or two. Keep doing the freelance stuff you enjoy. Enjoy the blogging. Soon you’ll discover things you either never realized were there or didn’t think you had time or interest for. At worst, go the local grade school and tell them you’d like to read or, more important for you, write with a child or group of children for whom expression does not come easily. They will grow faster and you will reap rich rewards.

If that’s not enough, find a program near you through Proliteracy America which teaches English as a Second Language. Whether individually or in a group, you have invaluable writing skills to share with them that will promote self-expression and also give them a “leg up” toward citizenship.

Yes, I’m a dedicated volunteer and I do both the things I suggest. They are very good for preventing crying in one’s beer. I hate to see anyone ruin good beer.

Oh, yes, and why don’t you try that radio gig? Who knows? It might even be fun.

Bubbiesue in Wisconsin

Not daunted, I got another job I liked better, and was just hitting my stride as the National Director for prenatal education, with the introduction of umbilical cord blood stem cell preservation. After just 6 months I was fired. I’d done my job well, hired 48 area coordinators who were also eminent childbirth educators, in 30 states and gave many presentations about stem cell preservation’s advantages, trained all the area coordinators, and was a resource for them. I was mystified, until it became clear that although the company had denied it, they wanted a hard hitting pharmaceutical representative kind of person. So OK, that wasn’t my idea of ethical. But they hadn’t suggested that I take that approach…..

After about 5 more jobs bit the dust, I despaired and examined my dilemma, until a friend who owned her own business with her husband told me about their situation regarding Blue Cross, their health insurance provider for their company. About 20 years ago, when her husband reached 55 years of age, they were told that they would be charged $1,000/month extra for the premium for his health insurance. There was no other reason given, except his age. He was in good health. All 30 of their employees were considerably younger. They paid that for 10 years.

Then her husband turned 65, and he was told by their Blue Cross agent that Medicare could not be his primary insurer, and an additional $2,500./month would be added to the premium for them to continue the policy. Rather than change insurance companies, the husband retired, leaving their son in his place. He worked as a consultant.

So I began to realize what happened to my employment. Except for the first time, I was dismissed after I’d filled out the application for health insurance where I worked, each time. That application required that I write my birth date, and was handled by human resources.

I look younger (really) than my age, and having a lot of experience and being good at interviews, I acquired practically each job for which I interviewed. Orientation to many different positions was getting very old, however. Camelian-like, I adapted to each new situation but dreaded the time health insurance would be mentioned. I did try to refuse to apply, but was told that I had to do that.

Age discrimination isn’t easy to prove, I was told by a labor lawyer I wanted to hire, and I didn’t have enough cash to keep up my mortgage payments and the up front deposit with him.

My ex-husband took the liberty then, of diminishing the spousal support he’d agreed to pay, and he has been in contempt of court many years now. That made further financial inroads on my cash flow, with the result that I refinanced my mortgage and had one of the sub prime miseries from World Savings, which was bought by Wachovia, which was bought by Wells Fargo.

My divorce lawyer died suddenly some years ago. No family law attorney wants my case, as they prefer the beefy brand new kinds of cases that pay more up front. Maybe when more divorcing couplkes choose to remain married, due to the daunting financial consequences of divorce, a lawyer will get the back support….. or at least get my ex to pay what he should. I’m not holding my breath.

With all the drama taking my energy, and feeling more and more isolated from the working world and my peers, I became ill for 3 years, further distancing myself from the working world. I moved to VA to be closer to my daughter and her family, but medical care here is a problem. First, no physicians would take a new patient on Medicare…….

So I moved back to California and got another job, which ended the same way the others had. I’d sold my home in the North Bay near San Francisco for that one and moved to the central coast area, where I’d been before losing the first job, and bought a condo there. I also had one in VA, which is in a community with the Homeowners Association from Hell! So I couldn’t put that one for rent.

So I went back to VA to get that one ready to sell, when I got sick again, the economy hit bottom, and the value of both condos plummeted. With so many other people losing their lifelong jobs, I don’t feel quite as alone, but now I can’t sell either property. I’m praying for a modification of my mortgage, but Freddy and Fannie are’nt my companions in misery. So it’s back to option 1 on my Pick a Payment, with 3 times the difference between that payment and Option 3 (principle and interest) being added to the principle monthly…..

Help me, Barack Obama, I’m sinking! And I got a call about flooding in my garage in CA.